Xiu Xiu Launch Art Show, T-Shirt Series

Bent pop provocateurs Xiu Xiu are as much an art project as a band, and now they've got the gallery show to prove it. February 4-26, the Raleigh, North Carolina art gallery Lump will host Xiu Xiu's show "I Hate This Suffocating Fucking Towne", a mixed-media exhibition. The group will host an opening reception February 4. According to the gallery's website, "all of the pieces are symbols of the wreck that is the mind and heart of Xiu Xiu."

Pieces in the show include stuffed animals that the band has collected on tour, a t-shirt written in the blood of band members, brass knuckles, plastic sex organs, felt art stolen from a preschool, and various items that were used in the packaging of the band's records. So it's basically an art show made up of things that your parents would not want to find in your room.

In further art-related Xiu Xiu news, frontman Jamie Stewart is teaming up with artist J. Morrison to launch a subscription series of art t-shirts. If you subscribe, you'll get a limited-edition handmade shirt every month for a year, with one subscription-only bonus shirt. Most of the shirts will also be available individually. The shirts "commemorate a figure who has influenced the artists," according to a press release. The first shirt in the series honors Freddie Mercury. You can subscribe, find the details, and see an image of the first shirt at the Xiu Xiu website.